Children’s Authority must file application for wardship for minors

A CHILDREN’S Court judge has ordered the Children’s Authority to immediately file an application for wardship in an unaccompanied minor case.

In the matter before the court concerning an application for an unaccompanied minor between the Children’s Authority, the Immigration Division and the Counter Trafficking Unit (CTU), Justice Bansee-Sookhai held that the authority had a duty to file an application for wardship for the unaccompanied Venezuelan minor who is also a victim of human trafficking.

Notice of the judge’s order was contained in a press release sent by the Judiciary over the weekend.

The application was submitted eight months after the authority was initially contacted by the CTU for care of the immigrant child.

The judge ruled that when a child is taken into care, applications of wardship must be brought “immediately” before the court in the best interest of the child.

The judge noted that the term “immediately” meant no delay whatever as the Judiciary has made sufficient provisions for the authority to make immediate applications for wardship through the availability of Registrars on-call and the Judiciary’s e-filing portal.

The judge said had the child been made a ward, the court would have been in a position to make appropriate orders for the child’s care such as specialised psychological interventions and educational and/or vocational training.

It had been revealed, the judge continued, that during the period in question, there were 12 children similarly under the care of the authority who may have been housed without having been first made wards of the court and thus without judicial oversight.

The judge gave guidance to the authority, the Immigration Division and the CTU on certain legal requirements for dealing with children who may be victims of human trafficking.

Section 23 of the Children’s Authority Act states:

“23. (1) Where the Authority receives a child into its care under section 22, it shall immediately

make an application to the Court for —

(a) a Wardship Order ….to be made in respect of the child and any other Order; or

(b) any Order including an interim Order under section 25 that the Authority determines necessary.”